Automatic speech recognition, as such, is known from, for example, "Automatic Speech Recognition" by Kai-Fu Lee, Kluwer Academic Publishers 1989.
Conventional known systems for converting speech to text involving automatic speech recognition are desktop stand alone systems, in which each user needs his or her own system. Such known speech to text conversion systems have been produced by such companies as International Business Machines, Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc and Dragon Systems.
These known systems are able to transcribe human speech to text, albeit imperfectly. The text results are presented to the user after a small delay whilst he or she is still dictating. This has a number of disadvantages. Firstly the instantaneous text presentation can confuse and alter the behaviour of the user who is speaking. Also, it requires that the user must themselves correct errors, usually using a text editor. Accordingly, the user must switch between the tasks of speaking and correcting, resulting in inefficiency.
IBM and Dragon have produced desktop speech to text conversion systems which are adapted to understand the speech of a particular user.
A method of sending text data together with speech data in a single file over a computer network is known from U.S. Pat. No. 55769.
In a first aspect, the present invention relates to a speech to text convertor comprising at least one user terminal for recording speech, at least one automatic speech recognition processor, and communication means operative to return the resulting text to a user, in which said at least one user terminal is remote from said at least one automatic speech recognition processor, the speech to text convertor including a server remote from said at least one user terminal, the server being operative to control transfer of recorded speech files to a selected automatic speech recognition processor.